October 2018 Numismatic-related Legislation Review — GO OUT AND VOTE!

The monthly numismatic legislation review was purposely delayed to bring you this important message:

GO OUT AND VOTE!

Every two years, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate seats are open to election. These people are supposed to represent you in Congress. They are supposed to represent your interests. How do you want to be represented?

After the fall of Saddam Hussein, the people of Iraq had an election where multiple people were on the ballot. In the United States, we celebrated for them by showing pictures of people with purple ink-stained, fingers, the sign that they voted.

Voting is more important for your local elections. State, district, county, and municipal elections are the ones that have more impact on your lives. They impact the schools, your local roads, small businesses including your local coin dealer, trash pickup, maintenance of your local parks, and nearly everything surrounding your daily lives.

Don’t forget about the ballot initiatives. This is your chance to have a significant say in the policies that your government will have to abide by. Here in Maryland, there is a ballot initiative to create a “lock box” (where have we heard that one before?) for the state profits on gambling revenue so that it would go directly to fund education. This initiative was proposed based on lessons learned where a significant portion of the settlement from the tobacco companies that was supposed to go to healthcare initiatives was transferred to the general treasury to pay for everything else.

Does your state have ballot initiatives? Do you know what they say? How are you going to vote on them when you get to the polls?

Do you know who the candidates are? Do you agree with their position or will you be voting for them because they claim they party as you do? Do you know which incumbent actually did their job and thought about you or did they change because a deep pocket donor asked them to?

It is a cliche to claim that this is the most important election ever. It is always the most important election ever because it is the one happening right now. It is important because you must have your say in how you want your government to work for you. It is your government.

GO OUT AND VOTE!

Legislatively, Congress was in recess for October while members who are seeking re-election when home to campaign. The only changes to numismatic-related legislation were the number of co-sponsors on bills currently in committee.

If history is a lesson, we will see progress on some of these bills during the lame-duck session.

Current Poll

What do you use as a price guide when buying your coins or currency?

Annual books for United States coinsAnnual books for foreign coinsPeriodical Guides (printed monthly or quarterly)Annual books for United States currencyAnnual books for Foreign CurrencyOnline GuidesI do not use a guide. I trust the expertise of a dealerI do not use a guide. I pay the price the dealer wants